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Donít hate me because I have a beautifully clean driveway. I shoveled it twice before 10 p.m., and it was clear of snow come morning. There is a good reason.

Perhaps it is because I love my wife and wanted her to have an easy time getting in and out (true, but not the reason).

Did I need fodder for this column? (not really).

Maybe I am just plain crazy (debatable to some).

No, the answer lies in the small farming community in Minnesota where I grew up. There, shoveling snow is not only a way of life, it is the cultural expectation.

In my hometown, there are only two reasons for not having your driveway and sidewalk shoveled immediately after a snowfall. You are a lowdown, lazy dog ó or youíre dead.

Shoveling snow immediately was a necessity. It would snow again and again and yet again, and would trap you in your house.

As a child, I once saw a neighbor on one crutch shoveling his drive. He refused any help, as he was not a lowlife, and he certainly was not dead.

Every day I walked to school I passed a little old man who lived in a little old house. He occupied himself year-round doing one of two things: cutting wood for the upcoming winter or shoveling snow.

One winter day as I passed his house, I saw him lying on the ice, shovel at his side. At his request, a passerby and I carried him into his house and put him on his bed.

He wanted no further help but only asked that we retrieve his shovel and put it outside his door so he could get back at it once he had recovered.

We are lucky in the Ozarks that the sun and high temperatures negate the need to shovel a drive or a walk immediately.

But it is hard to unlearn what was ingrained in me many years ago. So, if you see snow piling high in my drive, you might want to call 911 because I have never been called, at least to my face, a lowdown lazy dog.